Gannon, Megan. "Renaissance-Era Italian Warlord Was Poisoned, Mummy Reveals." LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 06 Jan. 2015. Web. 06 Jan. 2015.
This article described the mummy of a warlord named Cangrande who reigned over Verona, Vicenza, Padua, and Treviso in Renaissance Italy and was the leading patron of the poet Dante Alighieri until his death on July 22, 1329, when he was 38. His death was at the time believed to have been caused by drinking polluted water, but there were rumors at the time that he had been poisoned. These were, however, dismissed as merely legend. Recently, though, when researchers removed his body from its tomb and performed medical tests on it, they found, among other things, traces of the lethal plant foxglove in the mummy’s system. Foxglove, while sometimes used for medicine, can cause painful side effects such as vomiting, hallucinations, diarrhea, and a sometimes fatal increase in heart rhythm when more than the suggested amount is ingested. These symptoms are remarkably similar to what happened to Cangrande in the time before his death. Now that the possibility of murder has been taken into account, it is time to figure out who might have wanted Cangrande dead. Many did, as he was very powerful, such as his nephew and rival powers in the area.
This new development is very important to society. Not only will it give historiographers another clue about life in renaissance Italy, but it also shows how far science has come recently. The fact that scientists can perform autopsies on 700 year old mummies proves that our technology has become very advanced and that we can do amazing things. We may now start looking into other unsolved deaths of figures in history, as our advanced practices allow us to find out what happened to them.
This article was well written and easy to read and understand. The only issue with the piece was that it did not explain the technology that the scientists used to perform the autopsy or how long they have been in use. A brief overview of how they are able to look at very old bodies and perform the same experiments on them as they can on newer ones would add to the article’s importance and make the topic even more interesting. Overall, this article is highly recommended and, even though it does not cover all of the topics it could, further research can be done if one finds it particularly interesting.
Ali's review on the article "Renaissance-Era Italian Warlord Was Poisoned, Mummy Reveals," by Gannon, Megan was very descriptive and well written. One thing she did well is that she brought Cangrande's death into more depth, like when she says other people could have wanted him dead, but it is suspected to have been from polluted water. She didn't have much, if any, repetition throughout the summary and the language was also understandable because she explained many terms that the reader might not know. Ali could have included some quotes in her review and added some more facts that were stated in the article. Overall, I think Ali did a great job on explaining the article so when the reader goes to the article one may have more of an understanding about what its about.
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